printmanjackson

First, my car only has 30K miles and sits in the garage most of the time. I noticed a couple weeks ago a spot of oil on the floor about a dime size after I moved the car out of the garage. Since then I have had the car up in the air several times and each time wiped off any oil. The oil is at the bottom of the bell housing. You can see where it is slinging on the header on the right side and can smell it after a short drive, maybe 10 miles or so. I have tried to see if maybe it's comong from the top of the back of the engine but I can't tell, everything looks dry from what I can see with a flashlight. Is it a common problem for the rear seal to leak?

Has anyone else had this problem?

C501962

I had both the oil pan seal and the rear main leaking. However, it would not drip on the ground unless the car was nose up elevated on a sloping parking spot. The valve covers were leaking slightly in the back also. I had high miles though so it was ready to be fixed. Everything is good to go now.

soggysailor

Not sure if this is it , but my oil pressure sensor was leaking and came down the back of engine. Has yours ever been replaced or given you issues?

phils C5 vette

I didnt notice any leak spots on the ground, but when I had my clutch replaced, we saw the seal leaking slightly, so it was repaired.

Its a whole lot of labor to replace it, so Id wait till clutch time if you could. And if its clutch time, do the gears to because most of your labor is paid for dropping the rear cradle to get to your clutch to get to your rear seal.

bumble-z

It's probably not the problem, but if you have an oil "catch can", that has needs to be drained, or drain petcock opened up over time, & leaking on down ?. Just a shot in the dark, that wouldn't cost any money to fix. I looked and the catch can mod wasn't in your car's profile. Good luck.

Chris Stewart

Well I coulda wrote this myself, except mine only has about 28K. I figured I deserved it for being rough on it with turbo boost, but still sucks...

Like Phil said it's a whole lotta work to fix, so I'll probably wait till I have a better reason to tear down. But I dont see how a clutch job that lowers the rear cradle will get to your engine's rear seal. The oil pan has to come off right, so the front cradle is in the way.

printmanjackson

After reading these replys this doesn't sound good. I hate to have any kind of leak because it will make a mess under the car.

Chris, are you sure the oil pan has to come off to fix the seal? I guess I'll dig out my manual and see what it says.

I never had had any oil pressure switch problems. Is it really possable for the switch to peak and oil is running down behind the bell housing?

Chris Stewart

Well I had to search and learn... I searched rear main and found alot of threads where everyone mentions to drop the tube and rear. One person reported a dealer quote of $1000 labor for a $20 part. ouch

The service manual says the flywheel comes off and the seal is pressed in behind. Wish I knew this 3 days ago, as I had the whole rear out this weekend for some diff service and just finished putting it together.

RDnomorecobra

The manual doesn't talk about all the pre-work to remove parts of the car in order to get to the clutch, flywheel, then rear seal. front cradle, lower oil pan, transaxle and torque tube need to be removed to get to it. if the rear main is leaking you likely need a clutch as well. total parts is probably $600, labor somewhere around $1500.

printmanjackson

If it is the rear seal then it would be crazy not to put in a new clutch.

$1500 for labor? I'll do it myself if this can be done without a lift.

RDnomorecobra

Other guys have done it in their garage on jack stands but it would be beyond my abilities. I'm sure you could find enough help on here.

Salem_Vette

I just had the same problem it was the oil pressure sensor leaking out the top.

printmanjackson

was the switch still working?

man I really hope that is what it is

Carcass

I did it twice in 2 months on jackstands in the garage.(just clutch,no rear seal)
The clutch isn't too hard to do,but it will take about 14 hours if you're young,or 20 hours if you're an old fart like I am...

If you mess up the pilot bearing,like I did,you get to do it twice...

Check out Dope's clutch how-to to see what's involved...

http://www.cajundude.com/c5techhome.htm

printmanjackson

Thanks, that's some great information on cajundude's page.